India national football team players: the squad after Panama, Brazil and Uruguay

India’s three World Cup friendlies are done: a 1-1 draw with Panama in Bengaluru, then defeats of 4-0 to Brazil and 6-1 to Uruguay in Kolkata. Khalid Jamil used 24 players across the three games, eight of them started all three, and India scored twice. Here are the India national football team players in the current squad, with every cap and goal updated after the Uruguay match, and the November problem nobody has solved yet.

Who plays for the India national football team?

This is the 26-man squad the All India Football Federation named on 31 August 2026 for the three friendlies. Gurpreet Singh Sandhu is captain. Caps and goals are as they stood after the Uruguay game on 6 October 2026, and India have not played since.

Player	Position	Club	Caps	Goals
Gurpreet Singh Sandhu (c)	Goalkeeper	Bengaluru FC	91	0
Albino Gomes	Goalkeeper	Jamshedpur FC	2	0
Prabhsukhan Singh Gill	Goalkeeper	East Bengal FC	1	0
Som Kumar	Goalkeeper	ND Slovan (Slovenia)	0	0
Anwar Ali	Defender	East Bengal FC	38	2
Akash Mishra	Defender	Mumbai City FC	37	1
Hmingthanmawia Ralte	Defender	Mumbai City FC	8	0
Abhishek Singh Tekcham	Defender	Mohun Bagan Super Giant	7	0
Bijoy Varghese	Defender	Punjab FC	6	0
Jay Gupta	Defender	East Bengal FC	5	0
Pramveer	Defender	Punjab FC	5	0
Ricky Meetei Haobam	Defender	Bengaluru FC	0	0
Anirudh Thapa	Midfielder	Mohun Bagan Super Giant	62	5
Ashique Kuruniyan	Midfielder	Bengaluru FC	45	2
Sahal Abdul Samad	Midfielder	Mohun Bagan Super Giant	45	3
Lalengmawia Ralte	Midfielder	Mohun Bagan Super Giant	31	0
Farukh Choudhary	Midfielder	Chennaiyin FC	25	3
Mohammed Sanan	Midfielder	Jamshedpur FC	7	0
Macarton Nickson	Midfielder	NorthEast United FC	6	0
Ricky Shabong	Midfielder	Punjab FC	6	0
Manvir Singh	Forward	Mohun Bagan Super Giant	52	7
Rahim Ali	Forward	Odisha FC	22	1
Vikram Partap Singh	Forward	Mumbai City FC	16	1
Edmund Lalrindika	Forward	East Bengal FC	13	0
Irfan Yadwad	Forward	Chennaiyin FC	7	0
Ryan Williams	Forward	Bengaluru FC	5	2

Four goalkeepers, eight defenders, eight midfielders and six forwards. Between them they now have 542 caps and 27 international goals, up from 487 and 25 before the window. Two of the 26 are still uncapped, Som Kumar and Ricky Meetei Haobam, and neither got on the pitch in any of the three games.

How did India do against Panama, Brazil and Uruguay?

Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	India scorer
25 Sep 2026	Panama	Sree Kanteerava Stadium, Bengaluru	D 1-1	Ryan Williams
3 Oct 2026	Brazil	Salt Lake Stadium, Kolkata	L 0-4	–
6 Oct 2026	Uruguay	Salt Lake Stadium, Kolkata	L 1-6	Anirudh Thapa

Two goals scored, eleven conceded, against three sides that all played at the 2026 World Cup. The Panama game was the one India will remember. Williams ran onto Akash Mishra’s long pass four minutes before half-time and finished past Marcos de León Reyes, and India held the lead until Omar Valencia’s dipping shot from outside the box in the 68th minute. India have never played Panama before, and they came within 22 minutes of beating a side ranked 94 places above them.

Brazil was the first meeting between the two countries at senior level. India kept their shape for the first 25 minutes before Estêvão and Pedro scored before half-time, and Samuel Lino came off the bench to add two more. Uruguay, coached by Diego Forlán, took an early lead through a Darwin Núñez penalty. Thapa equalised from a rebound after Williams’ shot was spilled, then lightning stopped play for around half an hour, and Uruguay scored almost as soon as it restarted. It finished 6-1. Our Panama, Brazil and Uruguay match reports have the full detail.

Who Jamil trusted, and who did not play

The starting spine barely moved. Eight players started all three matches: Gurpreet Singh Sandhu in goal, Abhishek Singh Tekcham, Anwar Ali and Akash Mishra in defence, Lalengmawia Ralte and Ashique Kuruniyan in midfield, and Manvir Singh and Ryan Williams up front. Thirteen of the 26 appeared in all three games, starting or off the bench.

The Brazil match was the one where Jamil used his squad. He made eleven changes from the bench that night, three of them at half-time, including Prabhsukhan Singh Gill for Sandhu. That was the East Bengal goalkeeper’s India debut, and Lino beat him twice. Mehtab Singh, who was not in the original 26, also came on late against Brazil. Albino Gomes got his second cap as a late replacement for Sandhu against Uruguay.

Three of the 26 did not play at all: Som Kumar, Ricky Meetei Haobam and Irfan Yadwad. Som Kumar is still the only player in the group based outside India. He is a 21-year-old goalkeeper at ND Slovan in Slovenia’s second tier, and this was his first senior call-up.

Ryan Williams and Anirudh Thapa scored India’s goals

Williams arrived at this window with two caps and one goal. He leaves it with five and two, and he was India’s most threatening player in all three games: the goal against Panama, the first India shot on target against Brazil, and the run that set up Thapa’s equaliser against Uruguay. Two goals in five games is the best scoring rate of anyone in the squad.

Thapa’s story is a different one. He came on against Panama for his first India appearance in two years, his previous cap having come in September 2024, and then started the other two. His goal against Uruguay made him only the second Indian to score against them in a senior international. The first was Manas Bhattacharya, in a 3-1 defeat at the 1982 Nehru Cup.

Manvir Singh won his 50th cap against Panama and is now on 52. His seven goals are still the most of anyone in the squad, and nobody in it has reached double figures. Sunil Chhetri scored 95 on his own, which is the clearest single reason India have struggled for goals since he stopped playing.

Twenty-five of the 26 play in India

The squad comes from nine Indian clubs plus ND Slovan. Mohun Bagan Super Giant supply five players, East Bengal FC and Bengaluru FC four each, Mumbai City FC and Punjab FC three each, Chennaiyin FC and Jamshedpur FC two each, and NorthEast United FC and Odisha FC one apiece. With the domestic season under way, that is where to watch almost all of them between now and the next international window.

Who is the captain of the India national football team?

Gurpreet Singh Sandhu. The Bengaluru FC goalkeeper is 34, started all three friendlies, and is now on 91 caps. That is 29 more than the next most-capped player in the squad, Thapa on 62. In 2016 he started a Europa League qualifier for Stabaek of Norway, the first Indian to play in a UEFA club competition. Our list of every India captain since 1924 has the full line he stands at the end of.

Who is the India national football team coach?

Khalid Jamil, appointed by the AIFF on 1 August 2025. He is the first Indian to hold the job since Savio Medeira in 2012. His start was the best part of his tenure so far: India beat Tajikistan 2-1 in his first match at the 2025 CAFA Nations Cup, then beat Oman on penalties for third place. This window, against three World Cup sides, brought a draw and two heavy defeats, which is roughly what the gap in the rankings predicted. India went into it ranked 138th in the world. Our page on India’s best and worst FIFA rankings puts that in context.

Who was left out of the India squad?

Three familiar names were missing. Sandesh Jhingan, for a decade the first name on the team sheet in defence, was not in the 26. Neither was Lallianzuala Chhangte, the winger who carried most of India’s attacking threat and scored the equaliser in the 2023 SAFF final. Liston Colaco was also out.

Sunil Chhetri, India’s record scorer and record cap-holder on 157, was not called up either. He turned 42 in August.

What is next for India?

November is crowded. India go to Dhaka for the 2026 SAFF Championship (4-17 November) as holders and nine-time winners, drawn in Group B with Pakistan and the Maldives, with their group games on 5 and 11 November. The semi-finals are on 14 November and the final on 17 November. India are also due in New Zealand for two friendlies, at Go Media Stadium in Auckland on 12 November and at the new One New Zealand Stadium in Christchurch on 15 November.

Those dates overlap. India’s second SAFF group game in Dhaka falls the day before the first match in Auckland, and the SAFF knockout rounds run straight through the New Zealand trip. One squad cannot play both, so the next India list will show which of the two Jamil and the AIFF have put first.

India’s all-time greats

Chhetri’s 95 goals and 157 caps are both national records, and he is the reference point for every forward who comes after him. Before him there were IM Vijayan and Bhaichung Bhutia, and further back the side that won Asian Games gold in 1951 and 1962 and finished fourth at the 1956 Olympics. Our ranking of the greatest Indian football players of all time makes the case for each of them.

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